An Analysis of the Current State and Ideal Model of China's Laying Hen Industry
The characteristics of China's laying hen industry are: 1. The small-scale, large-group industrial model still occupies an important position, while modernized models are emerging. 2. Production conditions are crude and makeshift, equipment implementation varies greatly, and overall investment is insufficient. 3. Production efficiency and production levels are uneven, and overall efficiency and level are relatively low. 4. Products are primitive, with low commodity attributes, and brand marketing efforts are weak. 5. The proportion of products sold domestically is high, while the proportion processed and exported is low.
According to the "2013 China Poultry Industry Development Report" by the China Animal Agriculture Association, China's laying hen rearing scale and production capacity rank first in the world. Egg production has ranked first in the world for 28 consecutive years since 1985, but the production level of laying hens lags considerably behind the world level. Laying hen farms are small in scale and industrial concentration is low, and the proportion of egg processing is less than 2%, a huge difference from international levels.
Characteristics of the laying hen industry abroad
In the United States, changes in laying hen farming intensified and integration accelerated in the 1980s, and the top 15 egg producers and distributors in the United States account for about 65% of the market share nationwide.
Cal-Maine Foods, the largest egg producer and distributor in the United States, has since 1989 completed 16 acquisitions of laying hen farms with 500,000 to 7.5 million birds, and currently owns: 2 breeder farms, 2 hatcheries, 26 pullet rearing and growing farms, 37 laying hen production farms, 35 shell egg grading and packing plants, 5 wholesale distribution centers, and 19 feed processing plants, producing and selling 7.2 billion eggs annually.
Noble Foods, the largest egg producer in the United Kingdom, has annual revenue of 550 million pounds. Its production and operation model integrates breeding, hatching, farming, planting, packaging, egg processing, and feed processing. Every day it collects eggs from more than 250 farms, which are graded and packed and supplied to major supermarkets. Its laying hen inventory exceeds 10 million birds, with annual egg production of 2.6 billion eggs.
ISE is the largest egg producer in Japan. Founded in 1912 in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, its laying hen scale is 10 million birds. In 1980, it established the wholly owned subsidiary ISE America, with a laying hen inventory of about 10 million birds, ranking sixth in scale in the United States, with its market mainly the East Coast centered on New York. In 1998 it entered the Chinese market, and in 2007 ISE America and Mitsui & Co. established ISE Co., Ltd., with 6 subsidiaries, whose business operations cover breeder hens, laying hen farming, and egg production and sales.
The ideal scale of China's laying hen industry
The inevitable needs of social development, the strong promotion of national policies, and the inevitable choice of industry development determine that scaling up, modernization, and integration are inevitable trends for the laying hen industry, but the current development of the domestic laying hen industry is still not entirely satisfactory. The cost of brand building is very high, brand profits are getting thinner and thinner, and the branded egg market is chaotic; therefore, channels are more important than brands. Large capital investment, high management requirements, high operating costs, high maintenance requirements, heavy dependence on electricity, and high supporting requirements determine that what is suitable is best. The scaled-up and modernized farming model must solve the following problems: disease issues, environmental protection issues, production efficiency, and drug residue issues. The integrated operation model must overcome the following difficulties: difficulty in operating, difficulty in selling, difficulty in making money, and difficulty in managing.